The inventive concepts relate to semiconductor memory devices and methods for manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor memory devices and methods for manufacturing the same.
Semiconductor devices have been highly integrated to provide excellent performance and to be manufactured with low costs. The integration density of semiconductor memory devices may directly affect manufacturing costs of the semiconductor memory devices. An integration degree of a conventional two-dimensional (2D) memory device may be mainly determined by an area where a unit memory cell occupies. Thus, the integration density of the conventional 2D memory device may be greatly affected by a technique of forming fine patterns. However, since extremely high-priced apparatuses may be used to form fine patterns, the integration density of 2D memory devices may be limited.
Three-dimensional (3D) memory devices including three-dimensionally arranged memory cells have been developed to overcome the limitations of 2D devices. However, new process technologies capable of reducing manufacture costs and improving reliability may be demanded to mass-produce the 3D memory devices.